What Is Zen?

After all the excitement of the past couple of days, I don't really have much to say for myself, so instead I'll just share a little story that you might have heard before.

A man is hanging over the edge of a cliff. His only hold on life is by his teeth, which are clenched on the branch of a tree. His hands are full and his feet cannot reach the face of the cliff to hang on. Another man happens to come by and leans over the cliff to ask him, "What is Zen?"

What answer should the man give? Should he release his only hold on life to answer the question with words? Can he adequately answer the question using only his hands? Should he answer at all? My teacher's teacher, the Rev. Soyu Matsuoka, said the answer to the question "What is Zen?" cannot be explained in words. The answer is to be found in the practice of Zen meditation and in a life of Zen. It reveals itself in the clear, alert mind and in the fearless spirit.

The story reveals the profundity of Zen. There is no way to answer. The Rev. Matsuoka once compared Zen to an arctic iceburg floating in a northern sea. To the eye, only the peak is visible while most of the cold mass lies hidden beneath the frigid water. Zen is like this iceburg. To the eye, Zen is often seen as sitting in meditation, chanting a sutra, or perhaps discoursing with a teacher. Seen this way, most of Zen is overlooked and never discovered. It is completely misunderstood.

Daisetz Suzuki once said that some people "go round and round on the surface of the mind without stopping," adding that Zen goes deeper. "Westerners," he said, "have a habit of thinking dialectically in terms of 'either/or' or in positive or negative. Zen sees only one instead of two. Westerners analyze things but in the East, we see a thing all at once and with our whole bodies, instead of just our minds." That is the experience of Zen. It is a way of understanding that goes beyond words.

A person may be content with reading various blogs and web sites about Zen and then discussing them with their friends to see if they have understood them the same way. To them, Zen is only intellectual. Another may think of Zen as sitting quietly with a calm mind. To that person, Zen is like a tranquilizer. To some, Zen is a sort of cult that can be joined to appear cool. To them, it is only a status symbol, but Zen does away with distinctions. It may be thought of as a sign of a rebellious artist or a liberal college student or a typical, 50-something single living in Atlanta, Georgia. Usually though, Zen if something to talk about when the conversation otherwise lags. All of these views see Zen from a distance and from the wrong perspective. It is like seeing only the tip of an iceburg and not knowing what lies beneath the surface.

"What is Zen?" can only be answered by each of us individually, and in the deep calm of meditation.